COMPETITIVE CONDITIONS IN INTERNATIONAL TRADE. 163
ments which can most advantageously use it. A great amount of
timely and practicable trade data is furnished to the Bureau of
Foreign and Domestic Commerce for publication in its daily and
other issues.
Bureau or Foreren ano Domestic Commerce—This bureau was
created by Congress in 1912 by consolidating the Bureau of Manufactures
 and the Bureau of Statistics. Among the important duties
of the bureau, under the direction of the Secretary of Commerce, are
“to foster, promote, and develop the various manufacturing industries
 of the United States, and markets for the same at home and
abroad, domestic and foreign, by gathering, compiling, publishing,
and supplying all available and useful information concerning such
industries and such markets and by such other methods and means
as may be prescribed by the Secretary or provided by law.”
The bureau secures its information from United States consuls
through the State Department, as explained above; from its own
commercial agents and attachés abroad; from its own agents in the
larger cities of the United States; from the United States customs
districts; from other executive departments in Washington; from
American commercial organizations at home and abroad: and from
official and other publications.
This information is published in Commerce Reports, Monthly
Summary of Foreign Commerce of the United States, Commerce
and Navigation of the United States, Statistical Abstract of the
United States, Foreign Tariff Notes, special commercial monographs,
trade directories of various countries, etc., all readily available to
she business men of the country.
The bureau maintains offices with competent representatives in
the principal cities of the United States. On request the bureau’s
publications, samples of foreign-made products, plans and specifications
 of construction work abroad, lists of foreign dealers in various
lines, manuscript consular reports, and similar documents will be
forwarded to these offices for inspection by those interested.
CoMMERCIAL ORGANIZATIONS FOR PROMOTION oF FOREIGN TrADE.—
There is a growing tendency on the part of those directly or indirectly
 concerned to associate themselves into commercial organizations
 which promote general trade relations with specific foreign
markets or which gather information and provide sound specialized
advice for members or which undertake to push American wares in
foreign lands.
The American chambers of commerce in various foreign countries
are prime factors in the promotion of American commercial and

132 U. 8. Stat. L.,, p. 827.
2 Promotion of Commerce Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Commerce, Miscellaneous
Series, No. 6B. 1914, pp. 3-9.